Latin 395/295: Late Antique and Medieval Latin
Syllabus, Fall 2007
Faculty Consultant:
Course Director:
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Syllabus Authors:
• Barbara Weiden Boyd, Bowdoin
• Glenda Carl, Southwestern University
• Owen Cramer, Colorado College
• Nick Dobson, Monmouth College
• Megan Drinkwater, Agnes Scott College
• Catherine Freis, Millsaps
• John Gruber-Miller, Cornell College
• Dave Guinee, DePauw University
• Rob Kendrick, Colorado College
• Jennifer Kosak, Bowdoin
• Anne Leen, Furman University
• Mike Lippman, Rollins College
• Marsha McCoy, Austin College
• James O'Donnell, Georgetown University
• Sonia Sabnis, Reed
• Amber Scaife, Kenyon
• David Sick, Rhodes College
• Holly Sypniewski, Millsaps College
Included in this syllabus: a course overview, a bibliography, a schedule of assignments,
and study questions.
COURSE OVERVIEW
Description
This course, making extensive use of resources available via the internet, focuses on the evolution of
Latin literature during late antiquity and the medieval period, beginning in the third century and
continuing until the twelfth century. Students will read and study the works of some of the major authors
of the period, including Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine, Prudentius, Hrotsvitha, Abelard, Heloise, Geoffrey
of Monmouth, and others. The course will focus on four main themes-- religion, education, gender, and
latinity itself-- within the consideration of changing historical, social, and cultural modes and values.
Students will participate in a weekly webcast lecture, an on-line discussion moderated by faculty
members from participating institutions in Sunoikisis, and weekly tutorials with faculty members at their
home institutions.
Objectives
This course is specifically designed for advanced students and will include a rigorous study of the cultural
and historical context during late antiquity and the medieval period. Students will continue developing
their understanding of the language by studying the literature as it evolved over this long period of time.
The goals of this course are to read and enjoy late antique and medieval Latin poetry and prose with full
comprehension of form and content; to master its genres and conventions and follow essential points of
written discourse; to demonstrate an awareness of the aesthetic properties of medieval Latin language and
literary style and how these differ from classical Latin; to understand the historical, social, and cultural
world of the medieval period as the bridge between antiquity and the modern world and the problems
associated with such "periodization" of history; and to become familiar with current trends in scholarly
interpretation.
Course Components
Preparation: Students should read all assigned primary texts for the week by the common session.
Students who choose to take this course at the 295 rather than 395 level will be responsible for less
reading in Latin but will be expected to complete all of the reading in English.
Common Sessions: Mondays, 6:30-8 PM Eastern. Students at all partipating institutions will meet
together online for a common session via multipoint interactive video-conferencing and a chat room.
These interactive sessions have a different faculty leader each week and typically combine mini-lectures
with discussion, questions, and exercises.
Study Questions: Responses to the study questions are due Wednesdays, with additional responses due
on Fridays. The study questions afford students the opportunity to expand on and synthesize issues that
arise in the reading and common session, as well as engage with secondary literature. Students may be
asked to complete additional reading in English for the study questions.
Due Dates and Times for Discussion Questions:
Time
Activity
4 PM (ED/ST)
Wednesdays
First Answers to Study
Questions due
4 PM (ED/ST)
Fridays
Responses to other
students' answers due
Tutorials: Each student will meet for at least one hour every week with a mentor at her or his home
institution. The times and locations of these meetings will be determined on each campus. Students are
responsible for contacting their faculty mentors and finalizing the details of their weekly meetings. These
sessions will focus more closely on issues of language, translation and interpretation of assigned readings.
Home campus mentors will be the final authority for all grades.
Examinations: Translation exams and quizzes will be handled by home institutions, but there will be a
communally designed essay-based midterm and final exam that will be administered and graded by
course faculty as a whole. Students will often be asked to interpret passages of Latin or use passages to
support their arguments on the midterm and final.
For students in ICLAT 295, grades will be based on the following components:
Class preparation and work in tutorial: 40%
Participation in the study questions: 30%
Midterm examination: 15%
Final examination: 15%
For students in ICLAT 395, grades will be based on the following components:
Class preparation and work in tutorial: 30%
Participation in the study questions: 30%
Midterm examination: 20%
Final examination: 20%
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Suggested Texts
1. Harrington, K. and J. Pucci. Medieval Latin (2nd ed.). Chicago, 1997.
2. Lewis, Charlton and Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary. Oxford, 1879. (Lewis and Short contains
more references to late Latin than the Oxford Latin Dictionary.)
3. Sidwell, S. Reading Medieval Latin. Cambridge, 1995.
Many texts and commentaries will be made available in electronic versions linked to the Moodle site for
the class.
COURSE SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS
Week One: September 3-9
Assignments:
Latin: Tertullian Ad Scapulam 2 and 5, Egeria (HP) 75-76 (stop at "rubo in igne" in line 12) and 77 line 3
to end.
English: all of Ad Scapulam
Week Two: September 10-16
Common Session
Topic: "Roman and Christian Identity"
Prof. David Sick, Rhodes College
Assignments:
Latin: Jerome, Epistle 1 (Sidwell 53-54), Epistle 22 (all of selection on Moodle), Mark 15-16.8
English: Jerome, Epistle 1 (all)
Week Three: September 17-23
Common Session
Topic: "Jerome and Literate Christianity
Prof. Dave Guinee, DePauw University.
Assignments
Augustine, Confessions 8.12.28-30 ("Tolle Lege") at Sidwell 46-48 [526 words]; 1.13.20-22 ("Dido and
Aeneas") from the Latin Library, [484 words]; Latin 295 does not read book one.
Week Four: September 24-30
Common Session
Topic: "On Augustine's Confessions"
Prof. James O'Donnell, Georgetown University
Assignments
Latin: Ausonius' Crucified Cupid (HP 88-93); Prudentius, Psychomachia 310-343 (Sidwell 63-64)
English: Prudentius, Psychomachia
Week Five: October 1-7
Common Session
Topic: "Late Antique Poetics"
Prof. Holly Sypniewski, Millsaps College
Assignments
Bede, Ecclesiastical History and Commentary (Sidwell 105-108)
Venantius Fortunatus
To Radegund at Lent (HP 161)
To Absent Agnes (HP 162-163)
To Radegund: on Flowers (HP 165)
Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi (HP 167-168)
Weeks 6-7: October 9-15 and 16-22
Fall Break Week/Days for some schools.
Common Session
Topic: "What is Medieval Latin?"
Prof. Glenda Carl, Southwestern University
Assignments:
Alcuin, "Conflict of Winter and Spring" (HP 223-225), "Mea Cella" (HP 225-227)
Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni (HP 243-244)
Week Eight: October 22-28
Common Session
Topic: "The Carolingian Renaissance and Educational Reform"
Prof. Nick Dobson, Monmouth College
Assignments:
Paul the Deacon, "Fatal Jest" (HP 204)
Dhuoda, Liber Manualis
Prose intro and opening acrostic (HP 273-275)
On loving God (HP 278-279)
Week Nine: October 29-November 4
Common Session
Topic: "Women, Barbarians, and other Others as Authors, Students and Patrons"
Professor Owen Cramer, Colorado College
Assignments:
Hrotsvitha
Preface
Dulcitius scenes 1, 4, and 5 (HP 354-355) and remainder in English
Week 10: November 5-11
Common Session
Topic: "Hrotsvitha, the Mighty Voice of Gandersheim"
Prof. Mike Lippman, Rollins College
Assignments:
Matthew Paris, the riot at Oxford and its aftermath (HP 646-650)
John of Salsbury, Metalogicon (Sidwell 256-259)
Week Eleven: November 12-18
Common Session
Topic: "Education and the University"
Prof. Anne Leen, Furman University
Assignments:
Abelard, Historia Calamitatum (HP 492-494, line 11)
Heloise, Epistulae 2
Latin (HP 506-508, line 19)
Entire letter in English
Week Twelve: November 19-25 (Thanksgiving break)
Common Session
Topic: "Writing and Reading Abelard and Heloise"
Prof. Marsha McCoy, Austin College
Week Thirteen: November 26-December 2
Common Session
Topic: "Manuscript Transmission"
Prof. Megan Drinkwater, Agnes Scott College
Assignments:
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (HP 517-520)
Alexander Romance (HP 455-456)
Week Fourteen: December 3-9
Common Session
Topic: "Vernacular Literature
Prof. Rob Kendrick, Colorado College
STUDY QUESTIONS
WEEK 2
1. Egeria went on a pilgrimage to Sinai. Have you ever done something analogous to this trip, and what
was your experience?
2. When Thomas More and Erasmus use to kick it old school, they conversed in Latin. In the spirit of the
academy, please respond to the following short questions in English or Latin .
Quod nomen tibi est?
Quam scholam frequentas?
Quot annos natus/a es?
Ubi habitat tua familia?
Esne monachus/a?
Quo modo otium agere soles?
3. This course will introduce you to the intellectual climate of the Late Antique and Medieval world.
What are your preconceptions about literature and intellectual life in the period
we're considering? How did your readings in Tertullian and Egeria fit or alter your preconceptions?
WEEK 3
1. In letter 22 Jerome mentions that the unpolished style of the Scriptures causes him to shudder. Identify
by citing examples some of the horrific features we find in Mark. Does the style of the Vulgate tell us
about the early Christian community?
2. In Letter 1 Jerome recounts the sufferings of the Christian woman falsely accused of infidelity. We can
hardly see this as a straightforward, journalistic narrative. How does Jerome use dramatic or rhetorical
effects in the letter? Further, does the employment of such dramatic and rhetorical devices conflict with
or enhance the religious value of the narration?
WEEK 4
1. Like St. Jerome, Augustine depicts secular literature as hazardous to one's spiritual health. Furthermore
both authors cite mysterious experiences with divine intervention with respect to their relationship to the
secular tradition. Compare the attitudes of Augustine and Jerome to secular literature and the role of
Christian spiritual ecstasy in determining those attitudes. Cite evidence from the texts.
WEEK 5
1. Explain how Ausonius' Cupid Crucified or the excerpt from Prudentius’ Psychomachia is an example
of the "Jeweled Style" described by M. Roberts.
2. Using any passage or lines from the text for evidence, choose three exercises from rhetorical training in
the Late Antique period and three rhetorical terms, which are used to describe compositional techniques,
to illustrate your point. These are listed in separate MSWord documents on the course Moodle site. Make
sure that you cite the Latin in support of your examples.
WEEKS 6-7
1. The Latin language is evolving in many different directions during the period we are studying. Valerius
Probus, writing during the third century C.E., was distressed by what he saw as the degeneration of
classical Latin. He drafted a list of 227 of his pet peeves (words that were commonly
misspelled/mispronounced) together with the necessary corrections. Pick three of the pairs shown below
(all of which come from his list) and write about what process(es) seem in your view to be leading to the
"wrong" word (Are particular letters being dropped or added? Under what circumstances? Why do you
think that might happen?). Then give a derivative of the word from English or a modern Romance
language.
speculum non speclum
sobrius non suber
calida non calda
fames non famis
tabula non tabla
mensa non mesa
auctor non autor
viridis non virdis
Februarius non Febrarius
2. "In principio erat verbum," wrote John. There are stories that, after the American Revolution, some
wanted to replace the language of the oppressor (English) with German, French, Greek, or Hebrew. Roger
Sherman, a delegate to the Continental Congress, said, "It would be more convenient for us to keep the
language as it was and make the English speak Greek." How does language serve as a vehicle for the
establishment/preservation of civil or religious authority? Cite specific examples in your discussion.
Props go to those who can provide examples from readings from the course.
WEEK 9
1. Dhuoda is (a) a Carolingian Latinist, (b) a Frank, possibly northern, (c) a Christian, (d) a woman, (e)
upper class or noble, (f) a mother, (g) a wife, and possibly other things as well. How do two or three of
these identities vie for prominence in her Manual ?
WEEK 10
1. In 2006, the Guerrilla Girls on Tour, a theatre troupe that describes its objective as to advocate on the
behalf of women and persons of color in the performing arts, issued its first annual Hrosvitha Challenge:
“We challenge professional theaters to scrap their plans of producing yet another production of a Greek
tragedy and instead produce a play by Hrosvitha, the first female playwright! The winner will receive
Guerrilla Girls on Tour's First Annual Hrosvitha Award!”
How would Hrosvitha herself have reacted to this challenge? How do you, as a student of the Greek and
Roman literature and culture, react to this challenge?
For more information on the Guerrilla Girls on Tour, see their website:
http://www.guerrillagirlsontour.com/pages/main_icon.html .
WEEK 11
1. What elements of the medieval university do you find still present at your institution?
Be certain to support your claims with evidence from the readings and lecture. The participating
institution that is deemed "most medieval" wins a special prize.
WEEK 13
1. Abelard and Heloise had very different memories of their early relationship. What accounts for those
differences and how do they reflect those differences in the selections of their letters that we read?
2. Which author of those we read this semester is the least likely to have survived from its time of
composition to the modern period? Why?
Be sure to consider a variety of factors in your answer, such as when it was composed, by whom, for
whom, where and by whom it was likely to have been read and/or preserved.